The Republican Party leans much farther right than most traditional conservative parties in Western Europe and Canada, according to an analysis of their election manifestos. It is more extreme than Britain’s Independence Party and France’s National Rally (formerly the National Front), which some consider far-right populist parties. The Democratic Party, […] Read more »
As the Democratic debaters chase their base, Trump has a prime opening
Hardball presidential politics, a little like Mother Nature, has an unforgiving way of winnowing a field and this go-round there is more to winnow than usual with 24 Democrats vying for their party’s nomination. In the wild, it’s called survival of the fittest and that seems an apt description for […] Read more »
Democratic group’s poll shows Trump vulnerable with his base on health care
The Democratic research group American Bridge is preparing a $50 million campaign to win over a slice of President Donald Trump’s base, and new polling has convinced the organization that Trump is vulnerable on pocketbook issues, especially health care, among white working-class voters. The battleground-state polling is a new step […] Read more »
Is Centrism Doomed?
… Centrists may be extinct in the current Republican Party, but there are still plenty among Democrats. The presidential field is stacked with people routinely tarred as moderates by their left-wing opponents, including Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, John Hickenlooper and Joe Biden, the Democratic […] Read more »
Trump Is Betting That Anger Can Still Be Power
Donald Trump has been the most persistently unpopular first-term president in the postwar era. Much of the nation is exhausted and embarrassed by his presidency, pining for normalcy, eager to change the channel. The president’s own internal polls show Mr. Trump trailing the former vice president, Joe Biden, not only […] Read more »
Americans weren’t always bitterly divided on abortion. This is how we got that way.
Everyone who cares about abortion has reason to be genuinely alarmed right now. … While public opinion on abortion has mostly stayed steady, the major parties have been steadily and deliberately choosing to move away from each other on the issue for decades. The confirmation of Brett M. Kavanaugh as […] Read more »